John Raab reading Merry Christmas Paco AlvarezWednesday, November 27, 5:00pm – 6:30pmMerry Christmas Paco Alvarez is a funny series of vignettes about one year in the life of a young Catholic boy and his relationship with his classmates, family, and dog. The many misadventures of Sean Raven, Paco Alvarez and friends will hopefully entertain and delight the reader. this novella will evoke sweet memories for catholic school alumni, and anyone who encountered the fears and joys of childhood.

The featured readers are: Abegunde and Carolyn GeduldCome early to sign up for Open Mic!Abegunde is an ancestral priestess, Healer, and Poet. Her fellowships include Sacatar (Brasil), Ragdale, and Norcroft. Her work has been published in toe good, Nocturnes, Wicked Alice, Warpland, and Beyond the Frontier. She is the author of four chapbooks, including Wishful Thinking and Contemporary Urban Prayer. She is the director of The Graduate Mentoring Center and also a visiting faculty member in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at IU.Carolyn Geduld was raised in New York City. She moved to Bloomington to attend Indiana University and wound up becoming a permanent resident. In her 20s, she published three non-fiction books, the first of which ranks over 13 millionth on Amazon. (Her best seller ranks just under 2 millionth.) Then she stopped writing to pursue a career as a mental health professional. She has been a therapist in Bloomington for over 40 years. Just over a year ago, she began writing fiction. In 2019, her short stories appeared in 11 literary journals and 4 anthologies. Her novel-in-stories “Take Me Out the Back” is being published by Black Rose Press in August, 2020.

The featured readers are: George Ella Lyon, Shayne Laughter, J.T. WhiteheadWith Music by Mike NotaroCome early to sign up for Open Mic!George Ella Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate (2015-2016), has published in many genres, including poetry, picture books, novels, short stories, and a memoir. Her poem “Where I’m From” has gone around the world as a writing model. Her poetry collections include She Let Herself Go (LSU, 2012) and Many-Storied House (Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2013). Lyon makes her living as a freelance writer and teacher. She and her husband, musician and writer Steve Lyon, have two grown sons. For more information, visit www.georgeellalyon.comShayne Laughter lives in Bloomington, Indiana. She has lived and traveled in Seattle, New York City, India, and Spain. She has published stories in Bacopa Literary Review, Matador Review, SAND Journal and RebelleSociety.com. Her novel, Yü: A Ross Lamos Mystery, was published by Open Books Press in 2010. Her voice talent work is heard in productions of the Burroughs Century/Wounded Galaxies audio play events. She is moving to India at the end of the this year, so this is your last opportunity to hear her read live.J.T. Whitehead earned a law degree from Indiana University, Bloomington. He received a Master’s degree in Philosophy from Purdue, where he studied Existentialism, social and political philosophy, and Eastern Philosophy. He spent time between, during, and after schools on a grounds crew, as a pub cook, a writing tutor, a teacher’s assistant, a delivery man, a book shop clerk, and a liquor store clerk, inspiring four years as a labor lawyer on the workers’ side. Whitehead was Editor in Chief of So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, briefly, for issues 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. He is a one-time Pushcart Prize-nominated short story author, a five-time Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, and was winner of the Margaret Randall Poetry Prize in 2015. Whitehead’s work has appeared in over 100 publications, most notably The Lilliput Review, Slipstream, Left Curve, The Broadkill Review, The Iconoclast, Gargoyle, and Wabash Magazine. His book The Table of the Elements was nominated for the National Book Award in 2015. Whitehead lives in Indianapolis with his two sons, Daniel and Joseph.

Our next Poetry on Brick Street is a special youth program featuring Rabbi Sandy Sasso reading from The Story of And. She will be available to sign copies of her books, supplied by Kids Ink.An open mic will follow. The event is free.Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, where she served for 36 years. She is the author of many award-winning children’s books as well as two book for adults. Her essays are included in many collections on children’s spirituality, women, and Judaism. This year she was a recipient of the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Author’s Award and the Torchbearers Award for the Indiana Commission for Women. She is director of the Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Initiative at IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute and co-founder of Women4Change Indiana. Other honors include: the Heritage Keepers Award from the Indiana State Museum, the Spirit of the Prairie Award from Conner Prairie, and the Sagamore the of the Wabash.Publisher’s Weekly selected two of her books, But God Remembered and Noah’s Wife: The Story of Na’amah, as Best Books of the Year. Abuelita’s Secret Matzahs is the winner of the 2005 Sugarman Family Children’s Book Award and the 2006 Best Books of Indiana Award. Rabbi Sasso is the 2004 recipient of the Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature.The Shemah in the Mezuzah won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award for Best Illustrated Children’s Book.

Touring poets and creative curators Chelsea Tadeyeske and Edie Roberts are dropping in for one night only as they head to the Cincinnati Art Book Fair. Come hear their confessional, tender poetry. Also featuring local poet Tasha Chopra.

Chelsea Tadeyeske is a poet, performer, and bookmaker from Milwaukee, WI. She is the founding editor of pitymilk press, publishing short-run chapbooks and journals both online and in physical form. Her work sits in the the intersections of shame, trauma, and desire that are rooted in femininity trying to pin down the destructive reverberations of societal expectations and affectations. She has released many chapbooks including her most recent works of poetry, if you bend it backwards nothing really happens (Rabbit Catastrophe, 2016) and we were all born with the right to be angry (bathmatics, 2016). She is currently performing work from a series of short stories titled Princess Diana, due out on bathmatics in Spring of 2019. By tracing comedic edges around uncomfortable and private tragic experiences both on the page and in performance, Chelsea teases out the feels and makes a soft weapon of vulnerability. Her work can be found online at Pretty Owl Poetry, Delirious Hem, Smoking Glue Gun, and Leopardskin & Limes, among others. She is a Virgo sun/Libra rising/Aquarius moon born in the year of the snake.Check out her brainchild: https://pitymilkpress.wordpress.com/

Edie Roberts is a rabbit with a hat. A genderqueer mouthpiece ponied up to bat, cheeks fat with american anxiety and morale relay. They reside in Detroit, Michigan where folks still talk with you in the grocery line; the hive humming about experiments with cooperation, the skeletons of capitalism, the dream of another way. They believe in self-publishing and making things for yourself. Their work is their own and they own the means of their own production for the most part. Titles include The Roof is On Fire pt.1&2 (2012/2016), The Heel and The Face (2016), Little Book of Shit (2016) and Everywhere You Go (2019). They lend hands and eyes and heart at pitymilk press and run a hapdash production site called bathmatics when there is time and purpose bubbling. More than summarized here at: https://edieroberts.wordpress.com/

Tasha Chopra is a poet, visual artist, and graduate student pursuing her masters at Herron School of Art and Design. She is the co-founder and media editor for Turnpike Magazine, an online publication dedicated to positive themes and marginalized voices. She also is a part of Indy Symposium, a group that holds bimonthly open mics and poetry slams at Black Circle Brew. Her poetry focuses on themes of family, identity, and human connection, and some of her work can be found in Genesis Magazine.Check out Turnpike: https://turnpikemagazine.com